Royals pound out season-high 16 hits, beat Blue Jays 9-6

Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar (left) flips the ball to second baseman Yuniesky Betancourt to force out Colby Rasmus of the Blue Jays for the final out of the third inning during Thursday night’s game in Toronto.
Photo by The Associated Press.

TORONTO (AP) — Luke Hochevar won for the third time in four starts after leaving the game with a sprained ankle, Eric Hosmer had three RBI and the Kansas City Royals beat the Blue Jays 9-6 on Thursday night.

All-Star Billy Butler snapped a season-long 0-for-24 hitless streak against Toronto pitching and Yuniesky Betancourt homered as the Royals won for the second time in six games. Salvador Perez tied a career-high with four hits, all singles, and Kansas City finished with a season-high 16 hits.

Hochevar (6-8) gave up two runs and four hits in five innings before leaving with his injury. He sprained his right ankle while running to cover first base on Colby Rasmus’ infield single in the fifth. He stayed in the game and struck out Jose Bautista to finish the inning, but was replaced by Tim Collins in the sixth.

Collins worked 11⁄3 innings and Greg Holland got the last two outs of the seventh.

Aaron Crow got two outs in the eighth but gave up Yunel Escobar’s RBI single before Jose Mijares came on and surrendered a two-run triple to pinch-hitter Ben Francisco before Kelvin Herrera got J.P. Arencibia to ground out to end the threat.

Jonathan Broxton finished in the ninth for his 21st save.

Arencibia hit two home runs for the Blue Jays and Henderson Alvarez (5-7) gave up five runs and eight hits in 51⁄3 innings. Toronto lost for just the ninth time in 14 meetings against Kansas City dating back to last season.

Kansas City opened the scoring with a five-run, 10-batter third against Alvarez, an inning that started and ended with Jeff Francoeur grounding out to third base.

In between, Alcides Escobar, Hosmer and Billy Butler hit RBI singles. A fourth run scored on Brett Lawrie’s throwing error and Mike Moustakas capped the rally with a sacrifice fly.

Butler’s infield single to third base was his first hit against the Blue Jays this season. Lawrie tried to throw Butler out from foul territory behind third base, but sent his throw into right field, allowing Escobar to score.

Arencibia cut it to 5-2 in the third when he followed Kelly Johnson’s leadoff double with a two-run drive into the second deck in left.

Toronto’s catcher went deep again in the seventh with a one-out solo drive, his 13th homer of the season, off Collins. It was his third multihomer game of the season and sixth of his career.

Kansas City made it 8-3 with a three-run eighth against reliever Francisco Cordero. Alex Gordon had an RBI single and two runs scored on Hosmer’s base hit to shallow right, with Jarrod Dyson racing around to score from second when the throw went to first base.

Toronto cut it to 8-6 in the bottom half on Escobar’s RBI single and Francisco’s triple, but Betancourt led off the ninth with a solo homer off Drew Carpeneter, his sixth.

Notes: The Blue Jays purchased the contract of RHP Sam Dyson from Double-A New Hampshire. Dyson replaces RHP Scott Richmond, who was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas on Wednesday. Dyson made his major league debut in the seventh, pitching to two batters. ... The Royals released C Humberto Quintero, who was designated for assignment June 27. ... Earlier Thursday, Broxton lost out to Texas RHP Yu Darvish in fan voting for the final All-Star Game roster spot.